Camden County, Georgia
Biographies

HARDEE, William J.
William J. Hardee was born in Camden County, Georgia, in 1815, and graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in 1838. He also, at a later day, attended the cavalry school of Sauinur, in France.
Assigned to the Second Dragoons, he was promoted in 1839 and 1844, respectively, to first lieutenant and captain. His service was in Florida, until 1840. when he was sent to Europe as a member of a military commission, to study the organization of European cavalry, with a view to utilizing the results in the United States service. On return, and assignment to duty at Fort Jesup, Louisiana, where five companies of his regiment were stationed, he was placed in charge of the tactical exercises, with the result that this nucleus was brought up to the standard of the best mounted troops anywhere.
Afterwards he served with the army of occupation in Texas, and then, in the Mexican war, with varied experiences and vicissitudes, including capture. He participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Contreras, and Molino del Key, in the capture of the City 'of Mexico, and in various minor affairs. He was mentioned in dispatches, was complimented in official reports for gallantry and skillful handling of troops at Molino del Rey, and was twice brevetted—to major and lieutenant-colonel, respectively, for gallant and meritorious conduct.
The State of Georgia also bestowed on him a sword of honor, in recognition of his service in the Mexican war. Later on he was selected by the secretary of war to compile a system of rifle and light infantry tactics, which was adopted in 18.55 for the use of the army, and was henceforth known as "Hardee's Tactics."
In 1855 Hardee was assigned to the famous Second Cavalry. In 1856, with the local rank of lieutenant-colonel, was appointed commandant of cadets at the Military Academy of West Point, which position he occupied until September, 1860. Meantime he had been appointed lieutenant-colonel of the First Cavalry, and was absent on leave in Georgia when that state passed the ordinance of secession, immediately resigned his commission, to take effect January 21, 1861.
In the Confederate army Hardee declined high administrative office in favor of active field service, and was first assigned with the rank of colonel to the command of Fort Morgan, at the mouth of Mobile Bay. In June, 1861, promoted to brigadier-general, he was given a territorial command in Northeastern Arkansas. In the fall of 1861, Hardee now become major-general, with the greater part of his force transferred across the river to Kentucky, and ordered to Bowling Green, where he became the trusted lieutenant of Albert Sidney Johnston. Thenceforth, and for some two years, Hardee was so identified with the Western Army, known first as the Army of the Mississippi, and then as the Army of Tennessee, that to state his service would be largely to describe the operations of that army in which he took so prominent a part.
In September, 1864, Hardee was assigned to the command of the military department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, one of the four chief commands of the Confederate military organization, which he retained until the end of the war.
[A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians Volume 5, by Lucian Lamar Knight, 1917 - Submitted by Brenda Wiesner]

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